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Original poster

MIL constantly buying baby clothes

154 replies

Aliolii · 21/08/2025 22:12

MIL loves buying my DS clothes, she will go on a shopping spree every couple of weeks and buy him loads of stuff, he has more clothes at her house than he does at home. She keeps all the clothes at her house. She has DS one day per week, he is well looked after but she always takes off the outfits I send him in (not impractical just normal stuff from Tesco etc) and puts him in her clothes.

Why does this give me the rage so much? My DH doesn’t understand why it annoys me and I can’t articulate it either! We’re having another baby and she’s already stockpiling clothes for that one to keep ‘at her house’.

OP posts:
Greencustardmonster · 22/08/2025 07:23

I suspect in some families it would be normal but it would annoy me - not her keeping spare clothes at her house, but changing him unnecessarily out of a perfectly good outfit his parent has chosen just so she can pick his clothes. It would feel somewhere between criticism of my clothing tastes and trying to play at being Mummy to my child. Buying and choosing clothes is for the most part a parental not grandparental role.

If she’s doing you a favour I don’t think you can do much about it though.

Original poster
Aliolii · 22/08/2025 07:12

@Pancakeflipper yes she babysits 1 day per week as I was only able to get 4 days in nursery and couldn’t reduce my hours. I know it’s a huge favour and he’s well looked after.

OP posts:
Pancakeflipper · 21/08/2025 22:43

Gosh, it's like dress up with a doll.

She'll get bored when she realises he outgrows them quicker than he can wear each garment.

Why she doesn't give them to you is weird.

Is she doing babysitting for this 1 day a week?

Eenameenadeeka · 21/08/2025 22:33

I think it's odd, because she is keeping them all at her house rather than giving them to you so that he can get proper use of them. If she has him one day, she doesn't need to have a full wardrobe at her house getting hardly any use before they are outgrown, and keeping them to herself is kind of like she's playing dress up with a doll or something. The clothes should belong to the person who wears them and it's odd that she's keeping them.

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